WestWind Airlines

Why doesn't WW put up a events calendar and schedule three weekly events, Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday. Post it on the website and then whoever wants to fly online can pick a day and do it.

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Don Thomas

Hi Don

I like the sound of that, but I don't think many would show up. I used to do a monthly flight online in the western U S and I would have two days out of the month when I would fly that route on VATSIM. Most of the time I was by myself. Over the summer months some times there would be one other pilot with me.

When we do these big events 12 or more pilots tend to show up we try to have ATC online for us. People work harder to show up when it is a special event.

Just what I think, but I would love to see three or four pilots out there three nights a week.

 

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Michael Finn
WWA1704
HM Salt Lake City KSLC

I can tell by the lack of responses to my post, what the thoughts are. There is so much potential here, it just gets so frustrating. There are VAs out there that can have 10, 15, or more simmers on line at one time, why can't that be us?

 Right now American has 13 on line, Contential 9, Delta 11, WW 1....Mark Kuebeler. Hats off to Mark.

But I can bet there are PIREPS and Dispatches that will be filled out today.....truthful or not.

 

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Don Thomas

Don, there are 5 WW pilots online right now, and I was online a few mins ago doing a leg of my P001!

So you must of looked at a bad time, when you got 1 person online!

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Test Pilot

50 Hours x6
Green Monster x2
P001
October 2008 Screenshot Comp Winner

VATID: 1040117
Controller: UK Heathrow & Essex Region

I have to agree with Michael, you have to walk a fine line when scheduling special events.   Before I got into virtual airline simming I spent many years participating in various air combat sims (Air Warrior starting in 1991, later Aces High).  We periodically ran historical scenarios, and these were highly anticipated and  well attended, to the point where people showed up just to be on stand-by in case of no-shows. Then some guys got it into their heads that running scenarios was "cool" and started scheduling one every other month.  The result: participation dropped off to point where we seldom had full rosters.  When "special" events become routine people start taking them for granted.  We just had a hub fly-in recently with some pretty good turnout.

You also should keep in mind that some of those VAs are VATSIM-only airlines.  They won't accept hours unless logged on VATSIM.  I love VATSIM and will not fly offline even if I don't have ATC.  But WestWind is predominantly an off-line VA, and probably always will be.  Thus, the casual flight simmers who don't want to deal with the stark realism of VATSIM have a place to belong to.

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Mark Kuebeler, KSLC

I can only speak for myself when I say that I just do not have time to fly online.  I'm barely able to manage off-line flight time (and I'm retired and don't have any kids around the house).  When I can squeeze in some time, it is rarely even an hour and sometimes those end up being aborted...hardly worth the effort of flight planning and logging into VATSIM.  Look at the lack of participation on this forum. Those who don't participate on the forum are also not likely to fly online.  I agree with the others...there is likely to be more participation for  occasional special events.

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Bob S.
Senior Command Captain
E.V.P. Scenery

Hey Don,

Mark is right about lots of VA's require you to fly on VATSIM. One of the reasons why I joined WWA is because I could fly off line. Most of my flying is done online now, but when work gets busy and I need to relax I go offline so I can pause and come back to itin an hour or so and finish later.

I say try flying every Friday night ops for a month and I bet not only will you like all the ATC and trafic but you will see some of the same people there every week and at least one WWA pilot every week as well. I make it to at least one a month. My wife now asks me at the first of the month what Friday night I am going to fly on.

 

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Michael Finn
WWA1704
HM Salt Lake City KSLC

Bob Sturm:

I can only speak for myself when I say that I just do not have time to fly online.  I'm barely able to manage off-line flight time (and I'm retired and don't have any kids around the house).  When I can squeeze in some time, it is rarely even an hour and sometimes those end up being aborted...hardly worth the effort of flight planning and logging into VATSIM.  Look at the lack of participation on this forum. Those who don't participate on the forum are also not likely to fly online.  I agree with the others...there is likely to be more participation for  occasional special events.

Unfortunately, I have the same situation. I used to be heavily involved in VATSIM and don't fly or control on it much any more for a variety of reasons. I think it is a great service for those want to experience a bit of what real ATC is like and I encourage our pilots to use it.

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WWA1702 Senior Command Captain +3
RWP SEL Instrument Rating (almost)
WW Test Pilot
Monster Driver

Like clockwork every evening around 1:00am eastern Mitch and I are usually the only 2 online.  Every once in a while Johnny or Ian will burn the late night candle but with the schedules we keep this is the only time we get to fly!!  Take it or leave it!!

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Careful about calling people out on untruthful PIREPs, Don. You must have found the two minutes I wasn't online today and checked to see who was on... because (as can be confirmed on Vataware) I've been online pretty much constantly since 10 a.m. central time this morning flying. So has Travis Iversen, and Mark has been on for quite a bit of that as well, as have a few others on/off throughout the day. I know you weren't targeting anyone in particular with your comment about the untruthful PIREPs, but anyone flying on VATSIM can have their flights confirmed on vataware.com. As for those flying offline.. well, all we can do is hope.

Also, look at the sheer numbers of those other VAs you mentioned. I don't want to take the time to do the research, but I'd bet if you compared the # of WWA pilots on our VATSIM roster with the number of Delta, Contintental, American and Northwest pilots.. the difference would be staggering. Odds are, about the same percentage of their pilots are flying actively on VATSIM as are ours. There are just a hell of a lot more of them, and I'm okay with that.

Besides that.. I have nothing else to add, except to agree with what's already been said about the merits of occasional big events vs. thrice weekly events.
 

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Mitch Worthington
WWA1901
Command Captain
HM, KDEN Hub
Director of Charters — Central & South America

Don, FYI there are 4 pilots on VATSIM at this moment 5/20/08 12:53AM EDT, you can check VATAWARE to see how many of us are flying online if you need verification.

EDIT:  Speaking of VATAWARE i looked up your online activity and to my surprise you are now flying exclusively for DELTA Virtual. 

So please with the most respect i can give to you right now, Take your "How about weekly events" and "we have so much potential" back to Delta, because from where I am sitting we are doing just fine here!!!

Can someone lock this thread I am tired of seeing it active now!!

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PhilCohen:

Don, FYI there are 4 pilots on VATSIM at this moment 5/20/08 12:53AM EDT, you can check VATAWARE to see how many of us are flying online if you need verification.

EDIT:  Speaking of VATAWARE i looked up your online activity and to my surprise you are now flying exclusively for DELTA Virtual. 

So please with the most respect i can give to you right now, Take your "How about weekly events" and "we have so much potential" back to Delta, because from where I am sitting we are doing just fine here!!!

Can someone lock this thread I am tired of seeing it active now!!

 

Nicely Told!

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Cody Humphreys,
WWA1232,
Command Captain, CYVR

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